USA > New York > History of the 121st New York State Infantry > Part 12
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On the third of June we formed for a charge. We were in the trenches when Generals Wright
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12
and Russell, and some staff and engineer officers passed along the line of works and attracted con- siderable attention from our men as well as from the Rebels who frequently sent lead messages to them as they exposed themselves. They spent con- siderable time in the trenches to the left of us talk- ing to General Upton. Shortly after they went away, word was passed along that the order to charge had been countermanded at this place. Generals Russell and Upton deeming the position too strong to be taken. This was very welcome news to us, because had we charged a majority of us must inevitably have been shot. Every inch of that ground in front of us was commanded by sharpshooters and our works being farther ad- vanced than those on either flank we would have received a partially enfilading fire. On the 4th of June we made an effort, and got all we could of the poor fellows, who had been lying wounded between the lines, since the previous day's battles. But many were left, it being impossible to get them on account of the fire of the sharpshooters. The poorly interred corpses of our men within our line, and the dead lying between the lines had now become decomposed and putrid, and made an awful stench. The water was very poor and a long way off, and many of the men complained of being sick. On the 7th of June under a flag of truce we gathered the wounded between the lines that were still alive and buried the putrid bodies of the dead that threatened a pestilence to the living. The wounded were in a horrible condi- tion. One officer of the 106th New York I think, had a wound in the thigh that was infested with maggots. All the wounded yet alive could have survived but a little time longer. They had ex- hausted their water supply, and sucked their moist clothing to get the rain and dew from it. They had
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scooped out holes in the ground to shelter then- selves, and put moist clay in their mouths to pro- long life. Imagine, if you can, their horrible pre- dicament, lying on a bullet-swept field, without ability to crawl, their wounds infested with mag- gots, and existing five days or more before being succored, and you can get some idea of the hor- rors of war. I think it was the 8th of June that the enemy brought up some Cochorn mortars, and began business with them. The first shot landed in the 5th Maine regiment and killed and wounded several men. They continued this prac- tice while we remained in the entrenchments, and we were kept busy watching and dodging the flight of shells. Fortunately we escaped being hurt by them.
"The term of service of the 5th Maine had now about expired, and they were ordered to the rear for muster out. They had served three years, and had performed gallant and distinguished service on many battlefields, and we regarded them with a strong feeling of affection and pride. There was no elaborate leave taking. We were glad that they were going, and yet sorry because we should miss their gallant and effective support and coop- eration, in the future as in the past. And we real- ized that we should never see them again. If the State of Maine holds for them the pride and affec- tion that their comrades of the 121st New York have, it is something of a gratifying nature to have brought from the war. They went away, and the 2d Connecticut Heavy Artillery were installed in their place, with us. On the 10th of June a young engineer officer, Lieut. R. S. Mckenzie, took command of the 2d Connecticut. When I saw him I immediately recognized him as the officer who had led us to the position from which we charged on the 10th of May at Spottsylvania. Being a very brave and skillful officer he soon won the confidence
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and respect of the regiment, which had now be- come reduced to the size of an ordinary infantry regiment, by losses in battle and by the hard cam- paigning to which they were now accustomed. After the first few days, during our stay at Cold Harbor, we received fresh beef, soft bread and vegetables, of which we were in great need. This was possible because our base of supply had been changed to White House Landing.
"On the night of the 12th of June orders were given to draw out of the lines. The utmost caution was enjoined. The picket lines kept up a con- tinuous fire to drown the noise of the withdrawal. The artillery wheels were muffled to prevent the rumble of their wheels being heard. Thus silently we moved away from the lines which had cost so many lives of brave men on both sides, to assail and hold. Our losses had been much greater than those of the enemy, as they had the advantage of entrenchments. At daylight we were some dis- tance from the works, the brigade all together, except those left on the picket line and the 5th Maine on its way home, and at dark we were across the Chickahominy, crossing on a pontoon bridge at Jones' Bridge. We had not been followed by any force of the enemy, and no firing of any ac- count was heard until afternoon, when the faint sound of cannon and musketry told that the John- nies were after our rear guard, which consisted of Wilson's cavalry and the Fifth Corps. We were all glad to get away from Cold Harbor."
Several personal incidents may be of interest to the reader. The writer's brother was a member of the 106th New York Volunteers, and was on the skirmish line at the opening of the first assault. He was severely wounded, a bullet having shat- tered the bone of his right thigh. Word was brought me that he was in the Corps hospital and I went to see him, taking a roll of blankets for
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his comfort, I saw him placed in one of the baggage wagons for the journey over long stretches of corduroy road to White House Landing. He told me afterwards that several men died on the trip. Returning to headquarters I passed behind the house in which the surgeons were caring for the wounded. It was built on a side hill, the ground dropping away a full story to the rear. Out of the two back windows the amputated members were being thrown and the two heaps had already reached to the windows, and were continually being added to.
I had a few days before stood on the dead strewn field of the "Bloody Angle," and been deeply af- fected by the sight there presented, but nothing struck such a chill to my bones as did those two heaps of mangled arms and legs. In returning to the front, I reached the works a little to the left of brigade headquarters, and in walking along just behind the entrenchments, on a little rise where a battery was located, a Rebel sharpshooter in a tree made me a target and his bullet barely missed my head, and struck the enbankment be- tween two men who were digging a pit for ammu- nition. They turned and looked at me a little wildly, and I passed on out of range. Cold Harbor was the only battlefield on which I heard the shriek of a wounded man. To the right and front of brigade headquarters a man had fallen near the Confederate works, and when night came his fre- quent cry of anguish pierced the air with a weird, heart chilling effect. Gradually it died away, growing fainter and fainter until it was a relief to think that the poor fellow was dead and out of pain. In our army this was a strange thing. Usu- ally our men endured the greatest pain with stoicism, muttering perhaps, and groaning, and grinding their teeth. If an outcry was made it was usually in the voice of a foreigner.
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CHAPTER XIV FROM COLD HARBOR TO PETERSBURG
I [T is generally conceded that General Grant's purpose in the movement from Cold Harbor was not anticipated by General Lee. All his other movements had been accurately divined so that he was able to get to the position most advan- tageous to him before the advance of the Union army had reached it in sufficient force to hold it. This movement to the James River seems to have left Lee in perplexity as to where the Army of the Potomac was, and where it was going. The part which the 121st took in it, is of interest to us. The regiment, reduced by deaths, wounds and sickness, now numbered about one hundred men of the healthiest and hardiest of its members. But in the marches that followed these were tested to the utmost. The way was through a low and swampy country, the weather was exceedingly hot, the water was poor, and the roads thick with dust. To the brigade was assigned the duty of protecting the artillery trains. This made us the rear guard of the corps and the march was made with flankers thrown out on both sides to guard against any possible attack from either flank. The march con- tinued steadily till the 15th when the James River was reached at Wilson's Wharf. The brigade formed a line guarding the position on the river until the 17th when it was transferred by boats to Bermuda Hundred. Beckwith says, "Here we saw the first colored troops. Some of us going out after something to eat, found the roads picketed
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by colored cavalry men, who good naturedly took our chaffing."
The brigade disembarked at Point of Rocks and marched thence to Bermuda Hundred. We found that our Third division had already preceded us and were massed ready for rapid movement. In- stantly a report was circulated that we were to assault in front of Butler's lines and take and hold
the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad. We found the line occupied by Butler, elaborately for- tified-covered ways and bombproofs for the pro- tection of the men, redoubts and forts covered with mantlets covering the embrasures, and rapid fire guns in battery, the first of the kind we had seen, as well as many brass and rifled cannon. The place looked formidable. The lines were manned by Ohio State Militia, enlisted for 100 days. They were heartily sick of the job, and told us that they had not enlisted for fighting at the front, but to guard points held by old troops, so that the old troops could be sent to the point of danger. They told us that they were ordered to sleep in the bomb- proofs. Of course our talk with them did not improve our feelings. Many of our men were prejudiced against Butler, and thought it unjust for us to do his fighting for him, and that it wouldn't hurt the Ohio Militia to get a little touch of war. After dark we were moved out in front and formed in column, our brigade being on the right. The Johnnies drove in Butler's pickets, and General Foster who commanded in our vicinity called for help, and Ricket's division was sent to his assistance, but the attempt to retake the posi- tion was postponed, it was reported, until we had formed. Then a rush was to be made to seize and hold the railroad. As we after dark moved out to form in rear of the skirmishers, the militia stood by the side of the road which we passed out
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upon, and we envied them their good fortune. Hour after hour passed away after we had formed. We could hear the sound of axes and the falling of timber in our front, the passing of railroad trains, and all indicating the arrival of troops, and we knew that we had a tough job before us. Just before daylight orders to charge were coun- termanded; and we returned inside the fortifi- cations, pleased that we were not going blindly into the crash of battle, without knowing anything of our position. Afterward we learned that the Johnnies had evacuated their works in front of Bermuda Hundred, on the Bermuda Neck. When our men discovered that fact they advanced and took possession of them, and also went out and took possession of, and for some distance, tore up the R. and P. Railroad, and the advance line occupied the Rebel works. But in the evening Longstreet's men came up and promptly attacked the feeble force holding the works and drove it out, and instantly set to work to repair the mis- chief inflicted upon them. We should have oc- cupied their works immediately upon our arrival, and awaited their attack upon us in them. After they had recovered the position and retaken their works, to attack would have been to assail strong fortifications manned by veteran troops with the same result as before. The line of assault had been formed with General Terry's troops in ad- vance, our Second division supporting him and the Second brigade on the right to act as a flanking column.
As we marched out in rear of the works a sutler had just come in from the landing with some supplies, and although we had little money we began purchasing his wares. None of the men in the camp were awake and about, and after several deals not satisfactory to him, the sutler said he
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would not sell any more goods, they were for the men of the regiment of which he was sutler. This did not suit some of our people, and in a moment each man who could get into the shanty was acting as clerk for himself, and it took but a few moments to clean out the whole outfit. The sutler begged to be left a comb to comb his hair with, but I doubt if his petition was granted. I secured some hot pies and some canned goods. An effort was made by some officers to discover who had perpetrated this outrage, as it was called, but without any suc- cess.
"We remained at Bermuda Hundred waiting an order to attack. It was reported on the 18th that General Wright and General Butler had quarreled, but it had no influence upon our movements.
"On the morning of the 19th we crossed the river and marched to the Petersburg front, to the vicinity of the Petersburg and Norfolk Railroad, which position we occupied, relieving some of General Martindale's division of the Eighteenth Corps. At daylight on the 20th firing began on our front, and a battery just to our right kept up a continuous fire. Shortly after sunrise a Rebel picket came into our lines. He had a number of canteens and seemed to be confused and lost, and was greatly surprised when he jumped over the works.
"During the day of the 20th a Rebel mortar bat- tery opened upon us, and for a little while made it very lively for us. Where we were posted the railroad had been torn up, the ties used to face the inside of the breastworks with a tie standing on end against the facing and another placed brac- ing the upright tie to hold all in place. The third mortar shell fired, I discovered, was coming into the works and I shouted 'look out, it is coming right into the works.' There was a
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scampering to get out of the way by the men who were crowded around Hank King and Ben Jones who were issuing a cooked ration. The shell dropped close beside a sergeant of Company F who lay with his back against the breastwork and his legs sprawled out, fast asleep, unconscious of the danger. I jumped behind the upright tie and crowded myself into as small a space as pos- sible, and glanced around. I saw the shell sizzing away, and the men about it and the sergeant asleep. It seemed as though it would never burst, as though it were spellbound. Finally it went off and the sergeant was badly hurt, being hit by many of the balls it contained. Ben Jones also received a wound in the seat of his pants, and it spoiled our rations which were upset by the rush to cover. The Rebs continued their mortar practice for some time longer, but did us no more mischief. Several men were hit by sharpshooters during the day, among them Captain Mather, a rifle ball passing through his head, inflicting a serious but not fatal wound. A large body of colored infantry passed by us going toward our right. They had been re- lieved by our troops. Some of them had been in battle the previous day and had lost considerably. As they passed by us, they kept up a running fire of talk. One old fellow had his pants torn and I asked him how it was done. 'Oh, dere's war I got picked wid a piece ob shell.'
"On the night of the 21st we were relieved by some troops of the Eighteenth Corps, and marched to the left of the army, taking position on the left of the Second Corps, in the thick woods covering the country. Just at evening we advanced a con- siderable distance to the front of our entrench- ments, and finally began to get careless, thinking as we had gone so far, the Rebs had left our front. Coming to a large tree that had blown down, its
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roots with a large mass of earth attached formed a shield, reaching considerably above our heads, the trunk lying from us and obstructing the road. Lume and I passed to the right, and Barr with the 96th drummer to the left. I had scarcely got around when I saw a Reb on a horse with his carbine leveled at me. Instinctively I crouched and shrunk myself together as he fired and missed me. I was so rattled when I fired that I missed him as he galloped away, the drummer on the mule in pursuit. The Reb vidette, for such he was, had dropped his Mississippi carbine as he fled. We rushed forward and in a hundred yards more came to the edge of the timber, and before us was a field of grain in which were picketed some Rebel cavalry, upon whom we opened fire. The way they hustled and got onto their horses, and gal- loped away was lively. We had fired but a few rounds when Colonel Lessig and his adjutant rode up and forcibly ordered us to cease firing, and fall back. This we did without any loss, except it was claimed that a man named Cotten was left behind, or taken prisoner. We reached our lines without other loss, bringing the vidette's carbine with us. I shuddered afterwards when I remem- bered the scare that Johnnie gave me. He was probably nervous because we were on both sides of him, and that affected his aim.
"Returning to camp we made ourselves as com- fortable as possible. We had a hard task to get water. We had to dig wells or trenches quite deep in the clay into which the water would per- colate very slowly, but by digging a good many holes we managed to get a sufficient supply, of a milky color. The weather was beastly hot. The 2d Connecticut Heavy Artillery was camped on our right and its regimental headquarters were back in the pines. We had cut down a wide strip
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of pines in the rear of our works, and our shelters were in this opening. A guard patrolled up and down in front of the camp of the 2d Connecticut. As I lay in my tent I heard a groaning and dis- covered that it came from one of their men who was tied up by his thumbs to a pine tree. The poor devil was in awful agony and just ready to collapse. I stood it as long as I could and then said to one of our fellows, 'I am going to cut him down.' He said, 'You had better not,' but I took out my knife and getting as close to him as I could without attracting attention, when the guard's back was to me I ran up and cutting his cords said, 'run for the woods,' but the man just sank down in his tracks, as I bounded away to my tent for shelter. That caper cost me the corporal's stripes I wore, and some extra picket duty. I some- times think one of the fellows told who did it, but was never certain. For a number of days we were idle, but on the 29th of June we moved out to Ream's Station to help out Wilson's cavalry, who had been out on a raid, and had been cut off by Hampton, Lee, and some of Pickett's troops. We did not meet the enemy, but some of Wilson's men came to our lines, and we learned from them, that he had been badly used up and many of his men and guns captured.
"On the 30th we returned to our old camp on the Jerusalem plank road, from which we returned on the 2d of July to the position on the left of the 2d Corps. Our sutler, Sam Miller, came to us here and we rapidly filled up with the stock he brought, among which was some alleged Herkimer County butter and cheese, the former in tin cans was melted and the latter soon developed skippers."
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DR. JOHN R. ADAMS
The universally honored and beloved chaplain of the 121st N. Y. Infantry, from Sept. 16, 1864, to the end of the war.
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REV. J. R. SAGE, Chaplain, 1462 to September 16, 1864.
THEODORE STERNBERG, Quartermaster, from January 5, 1864, to end of war.
CHAPTER XV
FROM PETERSBURG TO HARPER'S FERRY
THE Fourth of July was duly celebrated along the lines in front of Petersburg and Rich- mond by a shotted salute of all the cannon along our extended line. It must have been a day of seriousness to the Confederate authorities and people. The war was evidently going against them, and the old flag was floating over the camps that were constantly encroaching on their narrow- ing lines of defense; and on the vessels closing all the seaports of Rebeldom. To break the tightening grip of Grant upon the defenses of Richmond, General Early had been sent down the valley of the Shenandoah to make a raid into Maryland and towards Washington. To meet the raid Gen- eral Lew Wallace gathered all the troops he could, but they were not sufficient to stay the advance of Early. It was determined to send the 6th Corps to the defense of Washington.
On the 6th of July the 3d Division of the Corps marched to City Point and boarded transports and steamed away. On the 8th of July the rest of the corps followed. The night was very dark, and the first part of the march was through the cut over ground from which wood had been pro- cured, and the walking was execrable until the road was reached.
The method by which a barrel of onions was secured from the pile guarded by a colored sen- tinel, the rough and tumble row between men of the 121st and 96th Pennsylvania on the boat to the
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different sides of which they were assigned, needs no more than a mention in the history of the regi- ment; the living participants will no doubt recall both transactions vividly. Colonel Beckwith did not forget any feature of it in writing his remem- brances. The name of the transport was the Transylvania and the speed she made caused a refreshing breeze which the men on board enjoyed exceedingly. The next day Washington was reached and the men of the corps, rested and re- freshed by the trip, but very hungry, disembarked at the Sixth Street wharf, and were quickly formed in rank and hurried up Seventh Street. Beckwith writes, "As we passed along we were greeted with clapping of hands, waving of handkerchiefs, and many remarks such as 'Bully for you,' 'Hurrah for the 6th Corps,' and we soon learned that the enemy were attacking the line of defenses on the Seventh Street road out near Brightwood, known as Fort Stevens, and that our advance brigade, Bidwell's of the 2d Division was already at work. Every man was ordered to keep in the ranks, and as we passed along water and ginger beer were given to the men and hundreds of people anxiously cheered us. The negroes were very demonstrative and saluted us with many quaint remarks one of which was, 'God bress Massa Lincum for the Six Co.,' and another, 'Dey's done got to clear out for dem red cross sojers. Wee's all saved now.'" President Lincoln was riding to the front while the 6th Corps was marching up Seventh street and was soon joined by General Wright, and together they went on to Fort Stevens, on the ram- part of which the President stood surveying the scene until urged almost imperatively by General Wright to leave that exposed position.
Colonel Beckwith gives the best account of what immediately followed that I have seen. "The day
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was exceedingly hot and that made the marching in the thick dust very hard after we had left the pavements of the city. When the sound of musketry reached us just before reaching Bright- wood, we saw General Wright stopping by the road side with a gentleman whom we immediately recognized as President Lincoln. He answered our greeting and cheers by raising his hat. In- stantly afterward we heard the sing of a bullet and we knew that the President was under fire. Moving up to the fort and deploying to the left in rear of our line of works, we found them swarm- ing to suffocation, with all sorts of people, invalid reserves, convalescents, clerks, citizens, marines, any and everybody who could or would be able to fire a gun. Among them was Hank Johnson, a Company D man of our regiment. He ran over and saluted his friends in that company. As soon as we were deployed, before in fact, General Bid- well rushed forward with the 7th Maine, the 61st Pennsylvania, 43d, 45th, 77th and 122d New York regiments, and swept back the troops of Rodes' division of Ewell's corps, then under Early, and pushed them down across Rock Creek and beyond Montgomery Blair's residence at Silver Spring, losing quite heavily at the outset, but in- flicting a greater loss upon the enemy. Under the eyes of President Lincoln, Secretary Stanton and a vast multitude of soldiers and civilians stand- ing upon the works, where they had for many hours fearfully awaited the advance of Lee's choicest troops, the superb veterans of Bidwell rushed upon their old time foes and pushed them from our front, under a devouring fire of mus- ketry, but stimulated by the cheering of the spec- tators. We were proud of our comrades, and glad that the President had an opportunity to wit- ness something of the terrible reality of war.
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Bidwell's success, and darkness coming on, ended the day's fighting, and we were not engaged. The next morning we went down the road and over the ground where the severest fighting had taken place, and saw many of our gallant fellows lying cold and stiff in death, as they had fallen. Their dead also lay scattered about thickly showing the determination of our advance and the courage of their resistance. The wounded had been gathered up, and taken to the hospital. Our loss amounted to nearly three hundred killed and wounded. The killed were buried in an enclosure to the right of the road in front of Fort Stevens, now a national cemetery, over which float the colors for which they gave their lives."
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